It's another new Congress, which means another chance for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to push for a matter that is counter to the conservative base of the Republican Party: amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Graham is teaming with Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to introduce the DREAM Act of 2023, which would allow illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who meet certain education or work requirements to earn permanent residence.
Durbin and Graham have introduced identical legislation in each of the past three sessions of Congress without success.
But Graham, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has consistently said his support for such legislation depends on measures taken to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"While I continue to support relief for DREAMers, I hope my Democratic colleagues understand we must repair a broken border and address a tsunami of illegal immigration before that is remotely possible," Graham said Monday in a news release. "The DREAMers represent a class of illegal immigrants that have much public support because they were minors brought here by their parents and America has become their home.
"To provide relief to this population, we must first convince Americans that the unending wave of illegal immigration will stop."
A version of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM Act, was first introduced by Durbin in 2001, but it has never come close to passing in the Senate.
In 2012, President Barack Obama issued an executive order to create the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that allowed some illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit.
Obama expanded DACA in 2014 to cover additional illegal immigrants. DACA was phased out under the Trump administration in 2018, but President Joe Biden reinstated it with an executive order in 2021.
Breitbart reported the amnesty would allow almost two million illegal immigrants enrolled and eligible for DACA to secure green cards and naturalized U.S. citizenship.
In 2017, Breitbart reported a DACA amnesty would open a surge of chain migration — where newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. — ranging from 10 million to 19 million foreign nationals.
Breitbart also reported its analysis found DACA amnesty would cost American taxpayers about $115 billion and the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost taxpayers $26 billion.
"I first introduced the Dream Act more than 20 years ago, and I'll continue fighting until it becomes the law of the land," Durbin said in the news release. "This is a matter of simple American fairness and justice. I thank Senator Graham for his continued partnership in this important bipartisan effort."
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